Development of a Multi-Layered Electrostatic Film Actuator for an Artificial Muscle

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The goal of the research is to develop an electrostatic artificial muscle, a muscle-like flexible actuator with large force density, by stacking thin, film-shaped electrostatic actuators. The electrostatic artificial muscle is constructed from induction charge film actuators newly developed by the investigators specifically for the artificial muscle. The induction charge film actuator consists of a stator film having a large number of striped electrodes and a slider film coated with a high-resistor layer. In this research project, key technologies for the film actuator such as material, design, fabrication, and control techniques are investigated and prototypes of artificial muscle are developed. The following results are obtained in the project.1. Two prototypes of the induction charge film actuator are fabricated. One has 420mum-pitched electrodes and the other has 120mum-pitched electrodes. Both actuators are successfully operated.2. Characteristic of the induction charge actuator is investigated by means of numerical electric field analysis. As a result, the optimum value for the distance between electrodes on the stator and the resistor layer on the slider is found to be 1/5 of the electrode pitch.3. Two prototypes of the electrostatic artificial muscle are constructed using the film actuators with 420mum-pitched and 100mum-pitched electrodes. Better performance is attained by the artificial muscle with electrodes of the smaller pitch. Its force density and power density are 35N/kg and 1W/kg respectively. This force density is comparable to conventional electromagnetic actuators.4. Micro step driving methods are developed. In the induction charge actuator driven by the normal method, the displacement of the slider in one sequence of drive equals to the electrode pitch. The micro step drive reduces the resolution to be less than 1/40 of the electrode pitch.